The Imagine Ball 2015 is back at The House of Blues this Thursday, June 4th, with lots of support from our community including this years celebrities The Madden Brothers and emcee Omar Miller. The Imagine Ball proceeds fully benefit Imagine LA, an exciting nonprofit organization that focuses on ending family homelessness in Los Angeles. This cause hits close to home because homelessness is at an all time high in this city. According to the LA Times, the number of homeless people in the county, which should be going down, instead has gone up 12% since 2013, to 44,359 This year. Our mayor Eric Garcetti even said “Ending homelessness is one of my top priorities as mayor”. To gather some insight on this event/cause, we reached out to the Imagine LA team.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourselves?

Jill Govan Bauman – President & CEO of Imagine LA. Jill Bauman, who has served as Imagine LA’s founding President and CEO since 2007, is passionate about engaging the community to truly eliminate chronic family homelessness, poverty and neglect. Prior to leading Imagine LA, Jill’s 25 years of business experience included investment banking, turnarounds, founding and leading 3 businesses. She holds a BA with Honors in Economics from Smith College and a MBA/MPPM from Yale University.

Randall Kaplan – Co Chairman for Imagine LA Board of Directors, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist. Randall Kaplan, Co-Chairman for Imagine LA Board of Directors, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist. Randall is a co-founder of Akamai Technologies, Inc. and is the CEO of JUMP Investors.

John Terzian – Co Chairman for Imagine LA Board of Directors, Co-Founder of The h.wood Group, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist. John Terzian, a native of Southern CA, he graduate from USC and Pepperdine Law School. John is the owner & Co-Founder of The h.wood Group operating LA hot spots like Bootsy Bellows, The NICE GUY, Blind Dragon and the newest Vegas must see Heart of Omnia. John also Co-Chairs Imagine LA, Children’s Hospital LA and Give Love Organization.

2. How did Imagine LA come about and how did you get involve in this cause?

Jill: Imagine LA’s original vision was that in Los Angeles there were 8,000‎ homeless families and there were over 8,000 faith communities — wouldn’t it be great if we could match one family with one group of people from a Faith Community and help end that family’s cycle of homelessness and poverty forever. From idea the Imagine LA Family Mentorship program grew first in the faith community (all faiths) and then into the corporate community and now teams of mentors can just be individual people wanting to have a lasting impact. Imagine LA’s innovative approach is working families are staying housed and each member of the families are excelling. 


Randy: A few years ago, I wanted to create a new cool fundraising event with h.wood Group’s John Terzian – the next generation of The Justice Ball, which I founded in 1996 – to benefit an organization doing really impactful work for homeless youth. John and I researched a lot of organizations and we loved the mission of Imagine LA, its effectiveness, and the difference it was making in the lives of the families in its mentorship program. Imagine LA was achieving such great results – everyone staying housed, parents getting on career tracks, and kids excelling in school and even going to college– and they had a plan for growth. They were also small and unknown, and we thought that a high profile event could have a large financial impact and perhaps as important, we could help them with additional visibility community. So we both joined the Imagine LA Board of Directors and launched the first Imagine Ball last summer (We raised over $250,000, 800+ people attended and generated over 50 press hits) – and here we go again!

John: Both Randall and I have been involved in several nonprofits/charities and a few years ago we wanted to narrow down to really focus on one good that we can really volunteer our time, network and resources. After extensive research on a few charities, including Imagine LA, we found that Jill Bauman and the whole Imagine LA board was the best fit and doing the best work. We felt that we could really make an impact by introducing a fun concert that brings together all ages to raise money and awareness for Imagine LA; thus, together we created the Imagine Ball.

3. What kind of ‘mentorship’ does ‎Imagine LA provide?

Jill: I‎magine LA’s Family Mentorship Program creates a team of volunteer mentors that journey alongside a family coming out of homelessness for one-to-two years. Each family member is matched with their individual trained mentor who builds a consistent relationship (they meet or at least speak weekly) with their mentee and together they to set and achieve goals, fun and navigate life. In addition each family gets a budgeting mentor and tutors and other helpers to build skills and confidence to break through poverty.

4. What makes this program so special?

Jill: It is the strong, consistent mentor relationships that are built with the family members. ‎These relationships encourage (and often actually take) the family members to utilize valuable services, they encourage and expose them to new opportunities and choices they did not even know they had (e.g. College, a career, learning an instrument) and like in the case of Sarah, they stick around through bouts of depression and self doubt.

5. What can we expect from ‎The Imagine Ball this Thursday?
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Randy: A great party that does not feel like a typical fundraiser. Where people have fun and are motivated to engage more in their city – to volunteer, give more to create a special opportunity (like an internship) for one of our Imagine LA youth.

John: The Imagine Ball will be an amazing collection of community, awareness, and influential platforms coming together to support Imagine LA and their drive for the youth and future generations.

To purchase tickets to The 2015 Imagine Ball or simply make a donation to Imagine LA click HERE